How To Improve Your Deadlift

Master The Secret To A Bigger, Better Deadlift

The deadlift, much like your dictation to Siri on your iPhone, is greatly misunderstood. The lift is really very simple: pick the weight up from the floor. And it's deceptive. Pick it up the wrong way and you'll be crawling on the floor like you're searching for a dropped contact lens for a week.

Suffice it to say how you train the deadlift will determine whether you end up looking like The Mountain from Game of Thrones or Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

Having covered the bench press and the squat, we are back at it again with our final installment on building strong powerlifts featuring the insights of the strongest 220-pound powerlifter in the world, Kevin Oak. Last but not least, we'll get into the deadlift, what is often referred to as the ultimate total-body exercise, and the most likely to put hair on your chest. while scraping it off your shins.

The two biggest mistakes that guys make, according to Kevin, when deadlifting is "they go too heavy too often" and "don't pull both ways." (Get your mind out of the gutter; he's talking about deadlifting, not your college days.)

The issue with going too heavy, or deadlifting near-maximal weights all of the time is two-fold:

1. When you lift very heavy weights, form will inevitably go out the window. You just don't get the opportunity to perfect your technique. So while you may be able to pull 300 pounds off the ground with a spine resembling that of a vomiting cat, if you were to, say, perfect your form while working with 250-pounds – or lighter, if that’s what you need — you would sooner progress to deadlifting 400 pounds.

Second to that, by working with a heavy weight too often, "you just accumulate injuries. It's too taxing for the body and you can't recover quick enough," says Kevin. The repeated stress is, plain and simple, more than the body can handle. He believes that for most people deadlifting once per week is the sweet spot.

2. You don't get enough "time under tension," meaning that your muscles aren't subjected to bearing load (i.e. weight) for enough time to make them stronger. When a weight is very heavy, chances are you'll only be able to lift it once, which doesn't provide the muscles enough of a stimulus to grow and make you stronger.

As for "going both ways," Kevin advocates doing both sumo-style and conventional deadlifts in your program, even if you have a preference for one over the other. He doesn't recommend necessarily doing these variations within the same workout, or even the same training block, but instead focusing on developing one for six-to-eight weeks, then switching to the other from six-to-eight weeks as well.

Why? "They each develop the body in different ways,” he says. “The sumo tends to make the hips stronger and conventional tends to make the back stronger."

Aside from changing up your deadlift style, Kevin also believes that there are assistance exercises or supplemental lifts that develop muscle and technique, that are also key to a big deadlift.

Dimel Deadlift

Load a bar with a moderate weight you would use on a deadlift and lift the bar to a full standing position. While keeping your body braced, push your hips back by creasing at the hips until the bar has lowered just past the knee, and you feel your hamstrings stretching. Initiate an explosive return to standing by contracting your glutes and pushing your hips back in "under" the shoulders, returning to a full standing position.

Good Morning

If possible use a "Safety Squat Bar (SSB)" as pictured above, otherwise a traditional barbell will suffice. Unrack the bar from a squat rack as if you are going to squat the weight. Set the feet at the same distance you would have them while deadlifting. While keeping the spine perfectly neutral, begin the movement by pushing the hips back and allowing the torso to lean forward as if you are bowing. Once you feel a big stretch in the hamstrings, return to a standing position.

Ab Wheel Rollout

If possible use an ab wheel like the one pictured above. If unavailable, substitute with a barbell that has ten-pound plates loaded on either end. Start with you knees under your hips and hands on the wheel handles (or bar) directly under your shoulders. Take a deep breath in and brace your core as if you are about to move something very heavy. Simultaneously "open up" the angle at the hip and angle at the armpit, as you elongate your body into a fully outstretched position. Pause momentarily and return to the starting position.